Zigzag blanking device in a press

ABSTRACT

A zigzag blanking device in a blanking press of the type in which a punch holder reciprocally moves toward and away from a die holder in vertical directions and also reciprocally moves along with said die holder in traverse directions with respect to an intermittently advancing strip material and said reciprocal movement of said punch holder and die holder in said traverse directions is effected by intermittently rotating of a rotary disc provided with an eccentric pin by one-half angular distance of one complete rotation of said disc in a predetermined direction.

[56] References Cited UNlTED STATES PATENTS 3,213,730 10/1965 Byam..... 83/215 X 3.48.3,784 12/1969 Kaiser 83/215 United States Patent 1 1 1111 3,762,260

Taniguchi 1 1 Oct. 2, 1973 [54] ZIGZAG BLANKING DEVICE IN A PRESS 3,264,915 8/1966 Peterson et a1 83/215 X [75] Inventor: Naonori Taniguchi, Kanagawzbken, 3,684,164 8/1972 Davls H 83/560 X Sagamihara, Japan Primary ExammerFrank T. Yost [73] Assignee: Aida Engineering, Ltd., Atwmey ]-[o1man & Stem Sagamihara-shi, Kanagawa-ken, Japan [57] ABSTRACT [22] Filed: Dec. 30, 1971 A zigzag blankmg dev1ce 1n a blanking press of the type PP N04 214,185 in which a punch holder reciprocally moves toward and away from a die holder in vertical directions and also 52 US. Cl 83/560 83/215 83/558 recipocany mves with Said die Older 51 1m. 01 .l B26d 5/02 direcfims with respect intermitemly 581 Field of Search... 83/215 216 560 vancing Strip material Said reciprocal movemem said punch holder and die holder in said traverse directions is effected by intermittently rotating of a rotary disc provided with an eccentric pin by one-half angular distance of one complete rotation of said disc in a predetermined direction.

6 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTED ET 2 973 SHEET 10F 4 Pmmmn 2 m 3.762.260

SHEET 2 [IF 4 i y g: I 7

H Alli HV/ PATENTED 2 75 SHEET '4 BF 4 ZIGZAG BLANKING DEVICE IN A PRESS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a blanking press and more particularly, to a zigzag blanking device in the press in which an intermittently advancing strip material is blanked or punched out in a two-row stagger or zigzag pattern to produce blanks which will be delivered to a subsequent processing press to be processed to desired products.

There have been proposed and practically employed a great variety of zigzag blanking devices for blanking presses of the type in which co-operating punch and die holders are reciprocally traversed over an intermittently advancing strip material to blank or punch blanks out of the material in a predetermined stagger or zigzag pattern to produce blanks which will be delivered to subsequent processing presses to be processed to desired products. However, in any of the conventional zigzag blanking devices of the type referred to above, since the traverse movement rate of the holders is rather great, the movement of the holders from one extreme position to the other extreme position in the reciprocal traverse movement stroke is adversely affected by the inertia force produced in their such movement to the extent that it is difficult to increase the processing rate of the press as desired.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, one object of the present invention is to provide a novel and improved zigzag blanking device in a blanking press which can effectively eliminate the difficulty inherent in the prior art blanking devices referred to above.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a zigzag blanking device in a blanking press in which co-operating blanking punch and die holders are in unison reciprocally displaced by a predetermined distance in an intermittent movement in a direction at right angles to the longitudinal axis of a strip material which is being advanced by a predetermined feed pitch in a path parallel to the longitudinal axis of the strip thereby to blank out of the strip in a predetermined stagger or zigzag pattern.

According to the present invention, the unison reciprocal movement of the punch and die holders is effected by imparting movement from a drive shaft through a planet gear mechanism and an eccentric pin to the holders in such a manner that the movement of the holders from one extreme position to the other extreme position in the reciprocal movement stroke can be smoothly and gradually effected and the holders are substantially free of the effect to be produced in their movement whereby the blanking rate of the press can be increased so as to produce 50 blanks per minute with the traverse displacement distance of the punch and die holders of 250 mm, for example.

According to the present invention, there has been provided a zigzag blanking device in a blanking press of the type in which a punch holder and a die holder are arranged to reciprocally move in unison in traverse directions with respect to an intermittently advancing strip material to be blanked or punched out, characterized in that said reciprocal traverse movement of said die holder and punch holder is effected by intermittently rotating a rotary disc provided with an eccentric pin by one-half angular distance of one complete rotation of said disc in a predetermined direction.

The above and other objects and attendant advantages of the present invention will be more readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which show one preferred form of the invention for illustration purpose only, but not for limiting the scope of the same in any way.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG.1 is a fragmentary plan view of a section of strip material to be blanked out showing the zigzag blanking operation mode to be performed by the zigzag blanking device of the present invention;

FIG.2 is a fragmentary front elevational view in section of one preferred form of the zigzag blanking device constructed in accordance with the present invention;

FIG.3 is an enlarged fragmentary side elevational view in section of said blanking device of FIG.2 taken substantially along the line llllIl therein;

FlG.4 is an enlarged fragmentary plan view of the extension of the die holder shown in FlG.2

F is an enlarged plan view of the sun and planet gear mechanism and its associated parts as shown in FIG.2 and FIG. 6 is a side elevational view of said sun and planet gear mechanism and its associated parts shown in F162.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION The present invention will be now described referring to the accompanying drawings in which a blanking press which incorporates one preferred form of the zigzag blanking device of the invention therein is shown and more particularly to FlG.l thereof. In this figure, a section of a continuous length of material in the form of a strip A is shown as having been blanked out in a two-row zigzag pattern having holes B which have been left after the blanking of blanks out of the material.

Turning now to FIG.2 of the accompanying drawings which shows one of the zigzag blanking-out station of the blanking device of a press and in this figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a punch mounted on a punch holder 3 and reference numeral 2 denotes a die mounted on a die holder 4 in opposition to the cooperating punch l. The punch holder 3 is slidably fitted on a plurality of spaced vertical guide posts 5 projecting from the die holder 4, the punch holder 3 and die holder 4 are slidably movable in the horizontal direction. As more clearly shown in FlG.3, the die holder 4 is adapted to be guided in a gib 7 which is in turn mounted on a machine frame 6 and slidably movable in both a first path along the center line X-X (FIG.2) along with the punch holder 3 and along a second path extending at right angles to the center line along with the punch holder 3 and guide posts 5.

The die holder 4, guide posts 5 and punch holder 3 are slidably movable left and right in the second path as seen in FIG.2. The punch holder 3 is in close contact with a pressure plate 9 mounted at the lower end of a link bar 8 conventionally connected at the upper end to the crank shaft (not shown of the press. With the construction and arrangement of the punch holder 3 and die holder 4 as mentioned hereinabove, as the strip material A is intermittently fed in increments into the blanking of the press by a predetermined length in a direction at right angles to the plane of FlG.2, blanks are successively punched out of the strip in a manner as will be described hereinbelow which blanks are further subjected to processing in the succeeding processing stations to desired products.

The die holder 4 has on one side an extension having a substantially U-shaped (F164) and the transverse intermediate portion connecting the opposite legs of the U-shaped extension is provided on the underside with an elongated groove 11. Slidably received in the groove 11 is a slidable member which is fitted loosely on eccentric pin 14 mounted on a horizontal rotary disc 13 which is in turn fixedly secured to the upper end of a vertical rotary shaft 12. The pin 14 is in threaded engagement with a threaded bar 17 which is mounted on the rotary disc 13 by means of a securing member 16 at right angles to the axis of the pin. Thus, as the threaded bar 17 is rotated about its axis, the eccentricity of the pin 14 can be varied or adjusted.

With the construction and arrangement of the eccentric pin 14 and its associated parts, as the rotary disc 13 is rotated, the eccentric pin 14 and slidable member 15 are slidingly guided in the groove 11 in the die holder extension 10, whereby the die holder 4 and the punch holder 3 connected to the die holder 4 by means of the guide posts 5 can be reciprocally traversed in unison over the intermittently advancing strip A at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the strip.

For rotating the vertical rotary shaft 12, the shaft has at a point adjacent to the lower end a pinion 18 which meshes with a rack 19 which is slidably mounted in a supporting member 20 which is in turn supported in the machine frame. As more clearly shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the rack 19 is connected at one end through a pair of pins 23 and a link 24 to a reciprocal member 22 which is in turn slidably supported on a pair of stationary guide bars 21. The reciprocal member 22 has on the underside an elongated groove 25 for slidably receiving a square slidable member 26. Loosely fitted in the slidable member 26 is an eccentric pin 30 which is integrally formed with a planet gear 28 which is in turn in engagement with a stationary sun gear 27. The shaft 31 of the planetgear 28 is journalled in a larger gear 33 which is in turn rotatably supported on a stationary shaft 32 mounted in the machine frame 6. The diameter ratio of the sun gear 27 to the planet gear 28 is 2 to l. The larger gear 33 is in engagement with a smaller gear fixedly mounted on a rotary shaft 34 which is in turn imparted rotational movement thereto from the drive shaft not shown of the press through a suitable transmission mechanism not shown and the larger gear 33 is adapted to be imparted thereto the rotational movement of 180 per cycle operation of the press.

In operation, the material strip A to be punched out is intermittently fed in the press in increments by a predetermined pitch in a direction at right angles to the plane of FlG.2 by the conventional feed mechanism (not shown) adapted to be actuated in a predetermined timed relationship to the rotational movement of the press drive shaft.

The larger gear 33 in engagement with the smaller gear 35 on the drive shaft 34 which is imparted thereto rotational movement from the crank shaft of the press is adapted to rotate 180 per cycle operation of the press. The planet gear 28 mounted on the larger gear 33 and engaging the stationary sun gear 27 revolves about the sun gear 27 while rotating about its own axis.

As the planet gear 28 revolves about the sun gear 27 and at the same time rotates about its own axis as mentioned just above, the eccentric pin 30 integrally formed with the planet gear 28 causes the slidable member 26 to move along the elongated groove 25 in the reciprocal member 22 in one direction and then in the other direction. Such movement of the slidable member 26 along the groove in turn causes the reciprocal member 22 to move left and right along the stationary guide bar 27 as seen in FlG.6.

As the reciprocal member 22 moves in the manner as mentioned just above, the rack 19 connected to the reciprocal member 22 through the link 24 and pins 23 also follows the movement of the reciprocal member 22 thereby to cause the pinion l8 engaging the rack 19 and the pinion shaft 12 to rotate reciprocally. The reciprocal rotation of the shaft 12 in turn reciprocally rotates the rotary disc 13 fixedly secured to the shaft 12 in the same manner as the shaft 12 and as a result, the eccentric pin 14 fixedly mounted on the rotary disc 13 and received in the elongated groove 11 in the underside of the die holder extension 10 causes the die holder 4 and punch holder 3 to move together left and right as seen in FlG.2.

By a suitable combination of the feeding pitch P for the strip material A to be punched out and the traverse displacement distance S of both the die holder 4 and punch holder 3 (see FIG. 1 the zigzag blanking operation as shown in F101 can be performed.

The traverse displacement distance S of both the die holder 4 and punch holder 3 can be adjustably set through adjustment of the eccentricity of the eccentric pin 14 on the rotary disc 13 by turning the adjusting screw 17.

As mentioned hereinabove, since the transverse displacement of both the punch holder and die holder is effected by means of the rotational movement of the eccentric pin and the planet gear mechanism and the movement component between sections a and b and that between sections 0 d in the eccentric movement of the eccentric pin 30 on the planet gear 28 as the pin moves describing the locus C as shown in FIG. 6 are utilized to displace both the die holder and punch holder, the traverse movement of the holders is reduced in speed as they resume their movement from the sections d a and b c of the locus C described by the eccentric movement of the pin 30 wherein the holders rest and also as they terminate their traverse movement. Therefore, the holders are substantially free of the effect due to their inertia force produced in their movement and as a result, the speed of the overall traverse movement of the holders per unit time can be increased and the processing rate of the press per cycle operation can be increased to S0 blanks, for example.

While there has been described and shown what is at present considered to be the preferred embodiment of this invention, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the invention, and it is aimed, therefore, in the appended claims to cover all such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.'

What is claimed is z 1. A zigzag blanking device in a press having a crank shaft and of the type in which a punch holder and a die holder are arranged to reciprocally move in unison in traverse directions with respect to an intermittently advancing strip of material to be punched out, characterized in that a planet gear is mounted on a first rotary shaft means which has imparted thereto rotational movement at a predetermined ratio to the rotation of the crank shaft of said press; a stationary sun gear disposed to be in engagement with said planet gear; a first eccentric pin integrally formed with said planet gear; a reciprocally movable member having an elongated groove for slidably receiving said first eccentric pin; a rack operatively connected to said reciprocally movable member and a pinion mounted on one end of a second rotary shaft means for meshing with said rack, said second rotary shaft means having a rotary disc secured to its other end, the rotary disc being provided with a second eccentric pin, and said die holder having an extension provided with a further elongated groove said further elongated groove having a slidable member disposed therein and provided with means for loosely receiving said second eccentric pin.

2. The zigzag blanking device in a press as set forth in claim 1, in which the eccentricity of said second eccentric pin provided with said rotary disc is adjustable.

3. A zigzag blanking device in a press comprising a horizontally reciprocal die holder, a vertically and horizontally reciprocal punch holder operatively connected to said die holder and having an extension provided on the underside with an elongated groove, said punch holder being movable independent of said die holder in its vertical movement and movable along with the die holder in its horizontal movement, guide means along which said die and punch holders reciprocally move in their horizontal movement, a vertical rotary shaft having at the upper end a rotary disc provided with a threaded eccentric pin which is slidably received in said elongated groove in the die holder extension, an adjusting screw mounted on said rotary disc in threaded engagement with said eccentric pin so as to adjust the eccentricity of the pin, a pinion mounted on said rotary shaft, a rack slidably mounted in the frame of said press for engagement with said pinion, a reciprocal member operatively connected to said rack and having an elongated groove on the underside, a pair of stationary guide members mounted in said frame for guiding said reciprocal member therealong, a slidable member slidably received in said elongated groove in the reciprocal member, a planet gear having a further eccentric pin integrally formed therewith, said further eccentric pin being loosely received in said slidable member, a stationary sun gear in engagement with said planet gear and having a shaft, said planet gear revolving about said sun gear while rotating about its own axis, a larger gear rotatably mounted on a stationary shaft mounted in said frame and bearing said shaft of the planet gear and smaller gear mounted a second rotary shaft to be driven by a drive shaft of said press in engagemntwith said larger gear.

4. The zigzag blanking device in a press as set forth in claim 3, in which the diameter ratio of said sun gear to said planet gear is 2 to l.

5. The zigzag blanking device in a press as set forth in claim 3, in which said horizontal movement of the die and punch holders is in a direction at right angles to the longitudinal axis of an intermittently advancing strip material to be punched out in said press.

6. The zigzag blanking device in a press as set forth in claim 3, in which said horizontal movement of the die and punch holders is intermittent.

l= 1B t k k 

1. A zigzag blanking device in a press having a crank shaft and of the type in which a punch holder and a die holder are arranged to reciprocally move in unison in traverse directions with respect to an intermittently advancing strip of material to be punched out, character-ized in that a planet gear is mounted on a first rotary shaft means which has imparted thereto rotational movement at a predetermined ratio to the rotation of the crank shaft of said press; a stationary sun gear disposed to be in engagement with said planet gear; a first eccentric pin integrally formed with said planet gear; a reciprocally movable member having an elongated groove for slidably receiving said first eccentric pin; a rack operatively connected to said reciprocally movable member and a pinion mounted on one end of a second rotary shaft means for meshing with said rack, said second rotary shaft means having a rotary disc secured to its other end, the rotary disc being provided with a second eccentric pin, and said die holder having an extension provided with a further elongated groove said further elongated groove having a slidable member disposed therein and provided with means for loosely receiving said second eccentric pin.
 2. The zigzag blanking device in a press as set forth in claim 1, in which the eccentricity of said second eccentric pin provided with said rotary disc is adjustable.
 3. A zigzag blanking device in a press comprising a horizontally reciprocal die holder, a vertically and horizontally reciprocal punch holder operatively connected to said die holder and having an extension provided on the underside with an elongated groove, said punch holder being movable independent of said die holder in its vertical movement and movable along with the die holder in its horizontal movement, guide means along which said die and punch holders reciprocally move in their horizontal movement, a vertical rotary shaft having at the upper end a rotary disc provided with a threaded eccentric pin which is slidably received in said elongated groove in the die holder extension, an adjusting screw mounted on said rotary disc in threaded engagement with said eccentric pin so as to adjust the eccentricity of the pin, a pinion mounted on said rotary shaft, a rack slidably mounted in the frame of said press for engagement with said pinion, a reciprocal member operatively connected to said rack and having an elongated groove on the underside, a pair of stationary guide members mounted in said frame for guiding said reciprocal member therealong, a slidable member slidably received in said elongated groove in the reciprocal member, a planet gear having a further eccentric pin integrally formed therewith, said further eccentric pin being loosely received in said slidable member, a stationary sun gear in engagement with said planet gear and having a shaft, said planet gear revolving about said sun gear while rotating about its own axis, a larger gear rotatably mounted on a stationary shaft mounted in said frame and bearing said shaft of the planet gear and smaller gear mounted a second rotary shaft to be driven by a drive shaft of said press in engagemnt with said larger gear.
 4. The zigzag blanking device in a press as set forth in claim 3, in which the diameter ratio of said sun gear to said planet gear is 2 to
 1. 5. The zigzag blanking device in a press as set forth in claim 3, in which said horizontal movement of the die and punch holders is in a direction at right angles to the longitudinal axis of an intermittently advancing strip material to be punched out in said press.
 6. The zigzag blanking device in a press as set forth in claim 3, in which said horizontal movement of the die and punch holders is intermittent. 